A made-in-Windsor tool to help property owners decide if their lot is appropriate for an additional dwelling unit is now available in 30 cities across the county.
"To showcase what is the potential of our residential lots by mapping buildable areas and seeing if minimum sized ADUs or tiny homes or backyard cottages, garden suites, laneway suites, there's a lot of names for them, but really to see what the possibilities are," said Sarah Cipkar, project co-lead.
The ADUSearch website compiles data like lot size and municipal zoning bylaws to quickly determine whether an in-law suite or tiny home could be built on any given property.
Cipkar said the project shows the potential for increasing housing throughout the country.
"We're seeing approximately 42 per cent of lots that can house a detached ADU, which is massive when you are thinking about the housing targets that we need to achieve in the next 10, 20, 30 years," said Cipkar.
Cipkar is hopeful the tool can be expanded to other cities throughout the country and support property owners through the ADU development process.
The tool has been available for the City of Windsor for the last year. The team indicated real estate agents and small dwelling contractors particularly find the tool useful.
